UCU London Region have called a solidarity meeting for Monday 12 June at 6pm . Please share this widely! More details at https://uculondonregion.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/open-solidarity-meeting/.

Justice for University of London Cleaners and Security Officers

Please attend a solidarity meeting for security officers and cleaners who are on strike at two London universities. Security officers at the University of London, in the IWGB union, have been striking against their bosses, the subcontractor Cordant. They are demanding an end to zero hour contracts, and a pay rise promised in 2012. Cleaners at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in the UVW union, are on strike for paid paternity/maternity leave, holiday pay, and sick pay on the same terms as LSE workers. Their boss is the subcontractor Noonan Services Group. Both groups of workers need your solidarity.

Date and Venue: Monday 12 June, 6-7.30pm. Executive Suite, First Floor, UCL Front Engineering Building, opposite Waterstones on Torrington Place, WC1E 7HB

Donate:

Security officers’ strike fund – University of London IWGB branch website https://iwgb-universityoflondon.org/:

• Name of bank: Cooperative Bank
• Account title: IWGB University of London
• Sort Code: 08-92-99
• Account no: 65689615
• Please use “SecurityofficierStrikeFund” as a reference

Justice for LSE Cleaners –  United Voices of the World: https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/justiceforlsecleaners/

• Co-operative Bank
• Account title: United Voices of the World
• Sort Code: 08-92-99
• Account Number: 65755617
• Please use “LSECleaners” as a reference

If you have any questions, please just contact us at office@iwgb.org.uk (or call: 07508336746)

Danny Millum has written to Cordant’s Tanya Vittorio to inform her that portering staff have entered into dispute alongside the security officers. More news as it comes! 

Dear Tanya

I am writing to inform you that the portering staff at the University of London are formally entering into dispute with Cordant over pay and the erosion of differentials – for details see the attached signed letter.

As stated in the letter, we are willing to enter into substantive negotiations over this, but should we not receive a positive response by Friday 2 June 2017 we will have no option but to ballot for industrial action.

Best wishes

Danny

Danny Millum

Branch secretary

UoL IWGB

http://iwgb.org.uk/

Photo: UVW

Thanks to everyone for their support for the massively successful security officers’ second strike last week! 

We had a great turnout for the strike and the picket (you may have heard us distantly in the background at some point), and had fantastic support from staff as well. 

After our encounter with Jeremy Irons on Tuesday we teamed up with striking UVW cleaners from the LSE on Wednesday for a joint picket. 

Despite this, the University are still trying to claim ignorance of their 2011 promise on differentials, and are refusing to enter negotiations. 

As such, workers voted on the picket line to call for 2 more individual days of strike action – dates to be announced shortly! 

We need all the support we can get – please donate to the ongoing strike fund (https://www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/1870/the-independent-workers-union-of-great-britain) and get in touch if you would like to help by writing to the University – we can suggest a draft template (email Danny at dannymillum@iwgb.org.uk).

Last night, security officers on strike carried out a noisy protest outside the entrance to Senate House, timed to coincide with the inaugural 1858 Charter Lecture on TS Eliot, which featured a reading by famous actor Jeremy Irons.

Irons was so perturbed by the noise we were making that he came outside to explain to us that we didn’t need to protest! You can see what he had to say for yourself, along with Jason’s reply:

Of course, we have repeatedly asked for talks with Cordant and with the University of London, and even offered to call off the strikes if talks were started. All of our reasonable offers have been refused, leaving us with no choice but to continue our dispute through strike action.

We’ve written to our union colleagues at Birkbeck, SOAS, LSE, City, UCL, KCL and RHUL asking for their support for our security officers’ strike next Tuesday and Wednesday. We’ve asked them to help us, and you can too! You can:

• Attend the picket line and let the University of London that it can’t treat its staff this way.
• Spread the word amongst colleagues and friends.
• Write to UOL Chief Operating Officer Chris Cobb expressing you unhappiness with his handling of the security officers at chris.cobb@london.ac.uk.
• Support the security officers by contributing to the Crowdpac.
• Support the IWGB on social media: Facebook & Twitter. 

The text of our letter is below:

Hi,

I hope this email finds you well. The IWGB are writing today to see if we can count on your support to stand up for the employment rights of your fellow staff at the University of London.

The IWGB has announced a second round of strikes of security officers working at the University of London central administration buildings on the 16th and 17th of May. You can find more information on this press release.

The security officers are demanding an end to zero-hours contracts and that the university implement a pay rise it promised six years.

The first strike held on the 25th and 26th of April received wide coverage in the press, being picked up by the Huffington Post, The Guardian, Novara Media & the Camden New Journal. 

You can support the security officers how you see fit. We suggest that you either:

• Attend the picket line and let the University of London that it can’t treat its staff this way.
• Spread the word amongst colleagues and friends.
• Write to UOL Chief Operating Officer Chris Cobb expressing you unhappiness with his handling of the security officers at chris.cobb@london.ac.uk.
• Support the security officers by contributing to the Crowdpac.
• Support the IWGB on social media: Facebook & Twitter. 

For further details you can reply to this e-mail or by calling our central office, the telephone number is listed below.

In solidarity,

Patrick Laredo.

Dear Kim,

In case you haven’t seen, I thought you might be interested in some of the coverage of this week’s strike by University of London security guards (attached and below), including one written by one of your security guards himself.

As I’m sure you are already aware by now, there appears to have been an incident of Cordant not abiding by Security Industry Authority (SIA) regulations as many of the “security guards” performing security duties at the protest were not displaying an ID badge.  We also have reason to believe that some of these may not have even been licensed security guards.  Indeed, as soon as we made an announcement at the protest about this, all of the non-ID’d “security guards” were shooed inside the building and Lee Smith (also performing security duties on the day) disappeared from the protest.  Performing security duties without a license and using unlicensed security guards are criminal offenses which needless to say puts your workers at health and safety risks.  We have had at least two complaints from our members that they were assaulted by these non-ID displaying and potentially unlicensed individuals.  All of this was documented with photos and/or video at the time.

Outsourcing low paid staff in order to avoid giving them decent pay and terms and conditions is pretty bad.  Promising them their pay differentials would be maintained and then reneging on that promise whilst sitting idly by as the use of 0 hours contracts becomes rampant on campus is worse.  But allowing your contractor to bring in a bunch of 0 hours, unidentified, and potentially unlicensed security staff in order to break a legitimate strike is truly disgusting.  I have already alerted the SIA to the issue and we are currently looking into the legality and criminal aspects of the entire operation as well as who is and is not licensed (e.g. Lee Smith).  Trust me when I say we will get to the bottom of this and when we do we will pursue both University of London and Cordant to the full extent of the law.

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend!

best,

Jason

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/love-job-security-guard-but-subtle-apartheid-strike#comments

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/zero-hours-and-short-hours-contracts_uk_59021d50e4b0026db1df4159

The second security officers’ strike will take place on 16 and 17 May! Watch this space for more information.

If you’d like to come and support us, check out the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2000893040139028/ and please donate to our strike fund if you can!

See below for an email from Dr Jason Moyer-Lee (IWGB General Secretary) to Kim Frost (University Secretary).

Dear Kim

In case you haven’t seen, I thought you might be interested in some of the coverage of this week’s strike by University of London security guards, including one written by one of your security guards himself.

As I’m sure you are already aware by now, there appears to have been an incident of Cordant not abiding by Security Industry Authority (SIA) regulations as many of the “security guards” performing security duties at the protest were not displaying an ID badge.  We also have reason to believe that some of these may not have even been licensed security guards.  Indeed, as soon as we made an announcement at the protest about this, all of the non-ID’d “security guards” were shooed inside the building and Lee Smith (also performing security duties on the day) disappeared from the protest.  Performing security duties without a license and using unlicensed security guards are criminal offenses which needless to say puts your workers at health and safety risks.  We have had at least two complaints from our members that they were assaulted by these non-ID displaying and potentially unlicensed individuals.  All of this was documented with photos and/or video at the time.

Outsourcing low paid staff in order to avoid giving them decent pay and terms and conditions is pretty bad.  Promising them their pay differentials would be maintained and then reneging on that promise whilst sitting idly by as the use of 0 hours contracts becomes rampant on campus is worse.  But allowing your contractor to bring in a bunch of 0 hours, unidentified, and potentially unlicensed security staff in order to break a legitimate strike is truly disgusting.  I have already alerted the SIA to the issue and we are currently looking into the legality and criminal aspects of the entire operation as well as who is and is not licensed (e.g. Lee Smith).  Trust me when I say we will get to the bottom of this and when we do we will pursue both University of London and Cordant to the full extent of the law.

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend!

best,

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/love-job-security-guard-but-subtle-apartheid-strike#comments

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/zero-hours-and-short-hours-contracts_uk_59021d50e4b0026db1df4159

http://novaramedia.com/2017/04/27/the-security-officers-striking-for-their-security/

Dr. Jason Moyer-Lee

General Secretary

IWGB

Here’s a couple of articles about this week’s security officers’ strike:

An report on the strike from Joe Hayns for Novara Media: http://novaramedia.com/2017/04/27/the-security-officers-striking-for-their-security/

Our own Abdul Baksh explained the reasons for the strike in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/love-job-security-guard-but-subtle-apartheid-strike